LITERATURELITERATUREHU 300 PappadakisHU 300 Pappadakis

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Welcome to Seminar!Welcome to Seminar!

Reading in America

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts put out a study called “Reading at Risk,” about the decline of reading in America. In 2007, another study showed that 1 in 4 adults read no books in 2006. (Fram, 2007)

What do you think of these findings? Do they seem accurate to what you observe?

What might a decline in reading say about a culture?

Update on Reading For the first time since the NEA began surveying

American reading habits in 1982 -- and less than five years after it issued its famously gloomy "Reading at Risk" report -- the percentage of American adults who report reading "novels, short stories, poems or plays" has risen instead of declining: from 46.7 percent in 2002 to 50.2 percent in 2008 (Thompson, 2009).

(Note: Nonfiction is excluded from the study)

What might explain the increase of reading in the last 6 years?

Which Which books/authobooks/autho

rs do you rs do you enjoy? enjoy?

Which have Which have inspired inspired

you?you?

Poetry In our unit we discussed poetry, which is rarely a

best-seller. Why might poetry be less popular than fiction?

Where are some places that poetry does exist and thrive in our culture?

How is poetry different from prose?

Why Poetry? What are some of

the unique benefits poetry can offer to the reader or listener?

Do you have any favorite poems?

“Meditation on Yellow”

By Jamaican writer Ms. Olive Senior

http://jamaica.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=603&x=1

Pictured borrowed from http://www.insomniacpress.com

The Haiku – a Japanese poem

“Oh these spring days!

A nameless little mountain

Wrapped in morning haze!”

--Haiku poet and Zen monk Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

The Haiku – a Japanese poem Has 3 lines, 17 syllables

“Controlled simplicity” (Fiero 2009). Makes an observation about a situation, and then

awareness. Usually about nature. Not usually about love or feelings. “The poet, observer, in a Zen state of mind sees the ruth

of a situation… the Simplicity… and writes about it WITHOUT personal interpretation or involvement” (Boloji, 2010).

No first person. About “day to day happenings which are seemingly

unimportant but attain a lot of importance” (Boloji 2010). 5-7-5 syllables? Line 1: 5 Syllables

Line 2: 7 SyllablesLine 3: 5 Syllables

Ezra Pound, American poet 1885-1972

An “imagist” poet – imagist writers cut away all the unnecessary stuff by “abstraction” in order to get to the bare essence of things.

“Verbal compression, formal precision, and economy of expression were the goals of the Imagists” (Fiero 2009).

Ezra Pound’s Haiku-like poems remind us of the Japanese style: simple, observant but not always detached or emotionless. Let’s take a look…

“The Bath Tub”

As a bathtub lined with white porcelain

When the hot water gives out or goes tepid,

So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion

O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady.

What does this poem tell us? How is it different from a traditional Haiku?

Pictured borrowed from http://www.likeadesertprophet.com

The Haiku – a Japanese poem!

“In the depths of the flames

I saw how a peony

Crumbles to pieces.”

Haikus are traditionally about nature – they are light and evoke thoughts of the natural world. For the Japanese during WWII, Haikus became vehicles to “evoke the presence of death”. Kato Shuson (1905-1993) lived through WWII and wrote about what he saw and experienced in the dehumanization of the war.

“Cold winter storm—

A safe-door in a burnt-out site

Creaking in the wind.”

“The winter sea gulls—

In life without a house,

In death without a grave.”

What effects are achieved by this “verbal compression”?

The Haiku – a Japanese poem…let’s write our own!

Has 3 lines, 17 syllables

“Controlled simplicity” (Fiero 2009).

Makes an observation about a situation, and then awareness.

Usually about nature.

Not usually about love or feelings.

“The poet, observer, in a Zen state of mind sees the ruth of a situation… the Simplicity… and writes about it WITHOUT personal interpretation or involvement” (Boloji, 2010).

No first person.

About “day to day happenings which are seemingly unimportant but attain a lot of importance” (Boloji 2010).

5-7-5 syllables? Line 1: 5 SyllablesLine 2: 7 SyllablesLine 3: 5 Syllables

References:

Boloji.com. (2010). Ms. Aparna Chatterjee, editor. “The Art of Haiku.”

Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition. New York: McGraw Hill, 6th edition, 2011.

Have a great week, thanks for coming! :)